ALAMOGORDO — Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes is hoping for a good turnout of voters for the primary election today.

Primary election polls opened statewide and in Otero County at 7 a.m. Voting locations in Alamogordo and throughout the county will be open until 7 p.m.

Early voting ended Saturday with 2,608 registered voters casting their ballot either at one of the voting convenience centers or a mobile voting location. Otero County had 267 people vote absentee by mail ballots but the absentee ballot submission deadline to the County Clerk’s Office is today, June 5, at 7 p.m.

In Alamogordo, the Sgt. Willie Estrada Civic Center, 800 E. First St., Tays Special Events Center, 2235 N. Scenic Drive, and the Otero County Fairgrounds, 401 Fairgrounds Road will be open for primary voting. Tularosa will offer voting at the Tularosa Public Safety Facility Court Room, 609 St. Francis Drive.

The 16 Otero County rural precincts will be open for the primary election. For more information about where to vote, go online to the Otero County Clerk’s website at co.otero.nm.us or call 575-437-4942.

Holmes said she is hoping voters will turnout for the primary election to cast their vote.

“When we started early voting, it was kind of a low turnout,” she said. “It really started to pick up at the end of early voting with the early mail in ballots that we sent out. We haven’t received all of those back either. Hopefully we’ll get those back by the deadline.”

Holmes said she and her poll workers are ready for voters to cast their vote in the primary election.

“We’re really excited,” she said. “We’ve been preparing for this election for many months. We just want to get people out to vote so they can have a voice and pick the candidate that best supports them.”

Holmes said she believes she and county poll workers prepared for any possible glitches.

“There’s always a chance for something to happen,” she said. “We have such a great crew, if something were to go wrong, we would definitely get it fixed. We’re prepared. We’ve been trained. We’re prepared to handle the glitches or any problems that may arise.”

Holmes said she believes the success of any election is credited to the volunteers and County Clerk’s employees.

“We can’t do this without all of our help, poll workers and early voting workers, and most of all the great staff that I have,” she said. “The elections wouldn’t move as smoothly and transparent without that whole group.”